The Dragonfly DF1 is a helicopter that uses
rockets attached to the tips of its blades to power it instead of a
conventional fixed motor attached to the body. The rockets produce no
pollution and are fueled by 70 percent hydrogen peroxide (H202) supplied
by a pair if fuel tanks surrounding the pilot’s seat. They are capable
of propelling the DF1 to a top speed of 185 km/h (115 mph) and can send
the craft climbing to a ceiling of 4,000m (2.485 miles) at a rate of 700
m (2,300 ft) a minute. Read More
We humans are such demanding creatures - we want
the world and then some. Luckily, there are concept designers out there
who are willing to cater to our whims. For those of you wishing tablet
PC's had a usable keyboard and the smartphone had a bigger screen feast
your eyes on the Smartbook concept. It’s a phone handset that folds out
into a QWERTY keyboard that can sync with its personalized PC tablet.
Read More
The photolithography process used to create the
features on computer chips has remained largely unchanged in the last 50
years. But as chip manufacturers continue to cram more and more
circuits onto a chip the limitation of this process is rapidly being
reached. Potential solutions to keep apace with Moore’s Law include using DNA molecules as scaffolding, replacing copper interconnects with graphene and using plasma beams.
Now researchers at MIT are developing a process that could see tiny
circuits being created using molecules that automatically arrange
themselves into useful patterns. Read More
Considering that sewing is supposedly a relaxing
pastime, isn’t it odd that the very first step in the process –
threading the sewing needle – can be so difficult? That’s exactly what
Minnesota inventor, Pam Turner thought and that’s why she designed the
Spiral Eye needle. It’s a sewing needle that allows the user to simply
slide a looped thread towards the needle eye where it is caught and then
pulled into the eye. Easy, stress-free and so simple - you wonder why
it's taken this long to create. Read More
Hydroelectric power specialist Bourne Energy has
developed a human-portable hydroelectric generator which can create
clean, quiet power from any stream deeper than four feet. The "Backpack
Power Plant", which joins the company's Riverstar, Oceanstar and Tidalstar designs, is aimed at bringing cheap, practical energy technology to remote areas. Read More
First announced at CES 2010, MSI's GE700 has now
been officially let out of the bag. Billed as an entertainment gaming
machine, its Intel Core i5 processor combined with a DirectX 11
supporting ATI Radeon HD GPU and cinema class audio are promised to give
the "ultimate experience in multimedia entertainment". Read More
Epson Toyocom Corporation has produced what it
claims is the world’s smallest 6-axis motion sensor. The use of motion
sensors is growing dramatically, with the components found in all sorts
of devices including cell phones, digital cameras, and of course game
controllers such as the Nintendo Wii Remote or the Sony PlayStation Move.
Epson Toyocom's AH-6100LR combines two different sensors in a single
small package, incorporating both a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis
gyro-sensor. Read More
Some things are just made for each other…bread
and butter, coffee and cream, maple syrup and waffles, robot vacuum
cleaner and wireless camera…wait a minute, that last one doesn’t sound
like a match made in heaven. But this robot vacuum cleaner with an IP
WiFi enabled camera could prove me wrong. This little dynamo not only
keeps your floors clean, you can direct it to vacuum from your holiday
destination and even use it to communicate - or keep an eye on - your
family back home. Read More
A team of scientists at the Tyndall National
Institute in Cork, Ireland has created what they claim is the world's
first junctionless transistor. The invention represents a breakthrough
in transistors and nanoelectronics, and has the potential to
revolutionize microchip manufacturing. Read More
World's first EEG spelling device reads your mind
By Jeff Salton
March 15, 2010
The award-winning French movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly brought to life the memoirs of Elle
magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby - the victim of a major stroke at
the young age of 42, resulting in him suffering “locked in syndrome”,
where the brain is active but the body is not. Bauby can only
communicate by blinking one eye and, with the help of a patient speech
theraprist, writes his memoirs. For other stroke victims or sufferers of
brain injuries who have lost the ability to speak and write,
communicating with the outside world can be frustrating. Guger
Technologies, makers of intendiX, has created a home-based system where
wearers of a special EEG cap can communicate via a computer with the
special software installed. Read More
"Green" mowers like the human-powered Mow Cycle
are great for keeping that well manicured lawn along with a clear
conscience. But there’s always the chance of running into a patch of
particularly thick grass that makes push mowers that little bit less
attractive. The Momentum Reel Mower tackles this shortcoming in an
ingenious way - its InertiaDrive Technology (patent pending) stores
energy like a flywheel to unleash a burst of extra cutting power when
required. Read More
Boeing’s A160T Hummingbird
UAV has successfully completed a simulated mission test proving the
unmanned rotorcraft’s ability to resupply frontline troops in rough
terrain. The demonstration saw the A160T carry 1,250-pound sling loads
over two 150-nautical-mile round trips operating autonomously on a
pre-programmed mission. The demonstration proved the craft is capable of
delivering at least 2,500 pounds of cargo from one simulated
forward-operating base to another 75 nautical miles away in well under
the required six hours. Read More
The excellence embodied by Duesenberg automobiles gave us the expression "It's a doozy"...
and this one certainly is. The 1930 Duesenberg Model J Sport Berline
sold for a touch over US$1.7 million at the 12th annual RM Auctions
Automobiles of Amelia Island auction in Florida last weekend. A second
1932 Convertible Coupe Model J fetched $825,000 in an auction that saw
four cars break the million dollar barrier. Read More
As identity theft continues to rise, authorities
are on the lookout for ways to use a person's physical characteristics
to distinguish between an imposter and the genuine article. Whereas eyes
change shape according to facial expression and ears can be hidden
away, researchers from the University of Bath have discovered that the
shape of a person's nose is rarely affected by such things and have
developed a technique which shows distinct promise for biometric
identify verification. Read More
Motion picture equipment manufacturer ARRI is set
to release its new high-end digital movie camera, known as the Alexa,
and some people in the industry are calling it the final nail in film
cinematography’s coffin. Sure, we’ve heard that prediction before but
early hands-on reports of the Alexa seem to back it up. Final details
have not been officially released, but so far we know the Alexa platform
will have a 35mm-size 3.5k pixel sensor with 800ASA sensitivity,
onboard HD recording, and shooting speeds up to 60fps. Read More
In many countries, the law requires young
children to be fitted in age- and size-appropriate seating within a
vehicle. In the UK, all children under 12 years old or 135cm in height
must use a booster seat, so it’s important to have one on hand at all
times. But sometimes these cumbersome devices get left at home or in the
“other car”. BoostApak is, as the name suggests, a booster seat in a
backpack, light enough for children to carry when traveling on a bus,
taxi, plane or while carpooling. Read More
With many online video resources now encouraging
HD uploads, what vloggers and podcasters need in order to finally ditch
the grainy low quality affairs that have plagued our online experience
for far too long is a high definition webcam. Microsoft has responded to
the call with three new 720p HD webcams which TrueColor Technology
which, the company claims, automatically adjusts picture quality to give
optimum brightness and color whatever light is available. Read More
Over the years, we’ve profiled a lot of ergonomic
computer mice here on Gizmag. They’ve all taken the approach of
redesigning the mouse itself to alleviate computer-related repetitive
strain injuries (RSI’s). The Ergoroller, however, looks to a redesign of
the wrist support to achieve the same ends. Like a
conventional wrist support, it provides a place to rest your mousing
arm, so you’re not constantly straining to hold it in position. Unlike
one, however, it contains two rows of steel bearings, that massage your
tendons and ligaments as you move your hand. Read More
Pogoplug, the multimedia sharing device we first saw at CES 2009,
has added to its list of features. Now, as well as allowing users to
access their media on any PC via the web, users can also stream content
to Xbox 360 and PS3 game consoles from any local or remotely located
Pogoplug. Additionally, the Pogoplug is now capable of offsite backup
thanks to the enhanced Active Copy feature that automatically copies
files to a Pogoplug in another location. Read More
If you have a PayPal account and an iPhone,
chances are you’ll never again be caught short of money when you’re out
and about. PayPal has released version 2.0 of its Send Money application
for iPhone, which means account-holders now have even fewer reasons to
carry cold, hard cash around with them. Three nifty features in the free
app are Bump, where iPhone users physically bump phones to “magically”
transfer money from one account to the next, a Split Check calculator
and the Collect Money function, which politely prompts debtors to pay
up. Read More
Newly developed radio-frequency identification
(RFID) technology could usher in the era of checkout line-free shopping.
The inexpensive, printable transmitter can be invisibly embedded in
packaging offering the possibility of customers walking a cartload of
groceries or other goods past a scanner that would read all the items at
once, total them up and charge the customer’s account while adjusting
the store’s inventory. More advanced versions could even collect all the
information about the contents of a store in an instant, letting a
retailer know where every package is at any time. Read More
FLUXXlab shows us how we're part of the energy cycle
By Ben Coxworth
March 18, 2010
Here’s how the natural energy cycle works: the
sun creates energy when it causes the plants to grow, the plants create
energy when they’re eaten by animals, the animals and the plants create
energy when they’re consumed by people, and then the people create
energy when they do things like open doors. That’s sort of the idea,
anyway, and it’s one that New York architectural designers Carmen
Trudell and Jenny Broutin have tried to express through their design
firm, FLUXXlab. They have created several clever devices designed to
convert human energy into electricity, and to educate people on their
place within the energy cycle. Read More
The F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter
has completed its first vertical landing. The Short Take-Off Vertical
Landing (STOVL) demonstration saw Lead Pilot Graham Tomlinson perform an
80-knot (93 miles per hour) short takeoff, a one minute hover and a
vertical descent onto a 95-foot square pad riding more than 41,000
pounds of thrust provided by the Rolls-Royce LiftFan system. Read More
No sooner had Canon released the latest 2.0.3 firmware update for its venerable EOS 5D Mark II
earlier this week than problems were discovered resulting in the
company pulling the update. The long-awaited update brought a range of
video shooting enhancements and audio tweaks along with fixes to the
camera’s manual sensor cleaning function. However, users quickly
discovered a malfunction that saw the camera unable to record audio in
certain circumstances... but a fix is on the way. Read More
XpanD is offering a solution to the frustration
of having to potentially purchase numerous sets of brand-specific
glasses in order to enjoy 3D content on different televisions and
3D-enabled devices. It's X103 active shutter glasses are said to work on
almost all new 3D-ready TVs, no matter the brand. Read More
The Universal Gadget Wrist Charger looks like it
would be even more useful than the magical bullet-deflecting bracelets
worn by Wonder Woman – for charging gadgets anyway. This device provides
a convenient way to carry around some extra energy reserves to power
the growing number of portable gadgets residing on your person these
days. Read More
This is pure genius. Lieben, a company based in
Japan, has created an umbrella that will keep your dog nice and dry when
you walk him on a rainy day. The concept is surprisingly simple. It
looks like a regular umbrella, but the canopy is inverted so that when
you point it downwards it's actually right-side up. The umbrella is
transparent as well so as to not impede the dog's vision. Read More
Natural photosynthesis isn't as efficient as we
would like it to be, and incorporating solar energy into useful products
is the subject for much collective research. Engineering researchers
from University of Cincinnati have found a way to artificially create a
photosynthetic material from foam which uses plant, bacterial, frog and
fungal enzymes to produce sugars from sunlight and carbon dioxide. Read More
One of the criticisms often levied at the drive
to get electrically-powered vehicles from the fringe into the mainstream
is the current lack of a network of charging stations. Four car
manufacturing giants have teamed up with a utility service provider to
tackle this problem head on. The newly formed CHAdeMO Association is not
only calling for a standard method for charging electric vehicles to be
adopted but is also hoping to add some much-needed momentum to the
global installation of fast charging solutions. Read More
When the British plug was introduced in 1946 it
did not have great ambitions. It did not expect to travel the world,
buried in laptop bags, forming awkward acquaintances with travel
adapters. When burdened with a jet-setter lifestyle it fought back;
peevishly shredding important documents, scarring laptops, and generally
making itself a bulky, disagreeable yet indispensable travel companion.
But after 50 years of dogged service, finally the old-fashioned plug
could be heading for a revamp. The astonishingly simple "Folding Plug"
design from British student Min-Kyu Choi, just won product design
category of the prestigious Brit Insurance Designs Awards. Read More
Last year UK broadcaster Sky announced it would launch Europe’s first 3D TV channel.
It has now revealed that Saturday April 3rd will be the kick off date,
with the broadcast of a Premier League clash between Manchester United
and Chelsea. Football fans will be able to don 3D glasses in over a
thousand pubs and clubs across the UK and Ireland that have already
signed up for the 3D service as will residential subscribers with the
necessary 3D capable equipment. Read More
When Ferrari World
opens its doors in Abu Dhabi later this year, fans of the prancing
horse will be treated to a monster roller coaster with a difference.
Riding in a Ferrari (of course), the ride will take thrill-seekers on a
two kilometer journey at up to 95 kmh and because there are two cars
running side-by-side, the roller coaster becomes a racetrack with a
different "winner" each time. Read More
AT&T has announced that its hoping to step
into Buffy's shoes and rid the world of vampires. Just as the undead
feast on the life-force of unsuspecting victims, mobile phone chargers
can continue to suck power from the mains even when disconnected from
the device and left in the wall socket. With the forthcoming release of
the ZERO charger, AT&T is aiming to change that. Read More
The sniper is without doubt the most fearsome of
opponents – capable of taking your life from great distance. Current
anti-sniper counter measures depend on the sight or sound of the initial
shot, and by that time, it may be too late. Now a new device which uses
the same "red-eye" effect of flash cameras and projects it hundreds of
meters, can identify binoculars, sniper scopes, cameras and even human
eyeballs that are staring at you. It is hence the first machine that can
offer 24/7 warning that you are being watched or targeted, BEFORE a
shot is fired. Read More
Researchers at the University of Utah have been
looking at the psychology of individual decision making in an effort to
help organizations better understand thinking patterns in the workplace.
The depressing, if a little unsurprising, conclusion is that what we
know we should do and what we want to do can be two very different things, in other words, we are not as ethical as we think we are. Read More
Wouldn't it be great if driving in thick fog,
pounding rain or blizzard snow wasn't a visibility nightmare and road
markings or important signage remained clear whatever the conditions.
General Motors may be on the verge of striking automotive safety gold if
the augmented vision display system its R&D team recently
demonstrated finds its way to commercial development. Read More
Fujitsu has announced the immediate availability
of six new additions to its proGREEN range of energy-efficient computers
and laptops. All of the new models are Energy Star certified and are
powered by Intel Core i3/i5 or i7 processors, with the LIFEBOOK E780
being claimed to have a huge 18-hour battery life. Read More
Only 10-16 percent of the fuel energy is used to
drive the car during everyday usage – that is, to overcome the
resistance from road friction and air drag and actually transport the
vehicle forward. That amounts to a lot of energy being wasted. Hybrid
cars recapture some of the energy usually lost in braking but the
dissipation of vibration energy by shock absorbers in the vehicle
suspension remains an untapped source of potential energy. To harvest
this lost energy, researchers have designed and tested a shock absorber
that can be retrofitted to cars to convert the kinetic energy of
suspension vibration between the wheel and sprung mass into useful
electrical power. Read More
Members of Free Art and Technology (FAT),
OpenFrameworks, the Graffiti Research Lab, and The Ebeling Group
communities have teamed-up with legendary LA graffiti writer, publisher
and activist Tony Quan aka Tempt One to develop a low-cost, open source
eye-tracking system that will allow graffiti writers and artists with
paralysis to draw using only their eyes. Their product, the Eyewriter,
recently won the Interactive Award at the celebrated Brit Insurance
Design Awards. Read More
Kodak joins the actioncam game with the Playsport
By Ben Coxworth
March 19, 2010
Kodak has just announced that it’s bungee-jumping
into the “actioncam” market, with this month’s introduction of its new
compact, shockproof, waterproof HD Playsport video camera. Members of
the public will have their first chance to try it out on Saturday, March
20th, at the 2010 Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships in Vermont.
On the off chance that you won’t be attending that event, here’s a bit
about the camera... Read More
German high-end audio specialist Vincent Audio
has announced immediate availability of its new CD player. Benefiting
from noise-reducing component isolation and offering the user the choice
of rich vacuum or precise digital reproduction, the C-60 also offers
premium XLR balanced output and a highly accurate Philips transport. But
serious audio enjoyment does come at a price. Read More
Infinite USB proposes an elegant alternative to hubs
By Rick Martin
March 22, 2010
For anyone who has ever lamented those clunky USB
hubs, there might be a far more elegant solution around the corner.
Thanks to clever design student Jiang Gonglue, we might not be too far
off from seeing something like this 'Infinite USB' connector, which
allows an unlimited number of devices to plug into one USB port. Read More
A cardboard record player created as a mail
promotion has become a chart-topping success for Vancouver-based sound
design company GGRP. The six inch record in a corrugated cardboard
mailer sleeve folds into a make-shift, human-powered player which, when
turned using a pencil, transmits vibrations through the needle and
amplifies via cardboard corrugations. Read More
Panasonic has launched a new business phone which
features a color touchscreen interface, the ability to view live video
feeds and even control cameras from the phone itself, an SD card slot
for data and programming backup and USB, ethernet and Bluetooth
connectivity. Read More
Not happy with the design of your mobile phone?
Nokia is looking for feedback from phone savvy consumers with its
"Design by Community" smartphone project. Over seven weeks visitors to
the company’s official blog, Nokia Conversations, will be asked to make a
series of choices on the specs of their ideal smartphone. Once the
results have been tallied Nokia’s design team will then come up with a
series of concept sketches which will go to a public vote. Read More
SLiME Smart Tubes - a remedy for bicycle flats?
By Ben Coxworth
March 21, 2010
If you’re a mountain biker, then you are no doubt
aware of the increasing popularity of tubeless tires. For the
uninitiated, these are tires that have no inner tubes, but that are
instead partially filled with any one of various brands of slimy polymer
goo. When the tire is punctured, some of the goo seeps out through the
hole, and firms up upon contact with the air. They’re self-sealing
tires, essentially. Because they don’t incorporate tubes, they also
weigh somewhat less than a traditional tire/tube combo. On the downside,
though, some brands are notoriously messy to install, and to keep
airtight. They also don’t work with all types of rims. Well, if you like
the self-sealing idea, but not the possible hassle of tubeless tires,
there’s a product you might want to try: SLiME Smart Tubes -
slime-filled inner tubes. Read More
Casio has gone for a double dose of green with
the latest addition to its Pathfinder collection. The new PRG110C-3
comes in an out-there shade of green and sports eco-friendly
credentials, including solar technology that generates enough power for a
day's operation in just 5 minutes. Read More
For many traditional sports fans, cricket is more
a religion than a pastime. In India, the game has never been more
popular – well, to be more precise, a new form of the game called
Twenty20 (20 overs per side, lots of scoring and a lot of entertainment
crammed into a few short hours) has appealed to millions of fans. To
match the game’s evolution, a new form of cricket bat has appeared - the
Mongoose MMi3. The new bat lit up the world scene a couple of nights
ago in the hands of one of world cricket’s hardest hitting batsmen -
Australia’s Matthew Hayden. He clubbed 93 runs from 43 balls. Read More
Scientists have begun integrating electronics
into biology, but don't bolt your doors in fear of cyborgs and hybrid
human-robots yet! Researchers from the Instituto de Microelectrónica de
Barcelona IMB-CNM (CSIC), have found a way to implant minute silicon
chips into living cells and use them as intracellular sensors. This
bio-nanotechnological advancement could tell us a lot about how our
cells are working at a nano level, and have widespread implications for
early detection of diseases, and new cellular repair mechanisms. Read More
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